An analysis, written by this project

Employee benefits & reserves: what the town votes for it

Printed `Gen Gov Unclassified`, and seven tenths of it is group health insurance. The fastest-growing large line in the budget, and the one that moves the total more than the schools do. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page.

lunenburgbudgetproject.org — written by the Lunenburg Budget Project, an independent tool for residents. Not affiliated with the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee or the school district. The document this page renders: /docs/analyses/town-budget-unclassified.md

$4,293,123

voted for Employee benefits & reserves in FY2025

12.7%

a year, against the 2.5% the levy may rise by

+1.00

points of the whole budget’s growth it accounts for

What this report counts

DOLLARS VOTED at Town Meeting for the year ahead — not requested, not spent, and not a service level.

01$604,237the largest move of any line in Employee benefits & reserves

Group Health Insurance is the line that moved most inside Employee benefits & reserves

Most of what this department did is one line, not the department.

The lines a department is made of move at different speeds, and one usually carries the department. Group Health Insurance went from $2,455,675 to $3,059,912 between FY2023 and FY2025, a move of $604,237. The department as a whole moved $914,412 over the same period.

What it rests on The department’s own printed lines in the FY2023 and FY2025 omnibus budgets, joined on the printed label.

What it does not show Why it moved, or whether the service behind it changed.

Those are the answers this report could reach from the documents behind it. If the one you came for is not among them, ask us — no name or email needed.

One of twelve departments in the omnibus budget Town Meeting votes each spring. All twelve together.

What it is

Costs that belong to no single department, printed by the town as Gen Gov Unclassified. Seven tenths of it is Group Health Insurance for town and school employees together; the rest is Medicare, liability and workers’ compensation insurance, group life, and two reserve funds the town holds against the unexpected — the Reserve Fund and the Salary Reserve Fund.

The department

	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
voted	$3,378,711	$3,968,170	$4,293,123
a year	12.7%
share of the budget	9.8%
pull on total growth	+1.00

Its lines, as printed

FY2023

line	label	voted
4	Liability Insurance	$225,644
5	Workers Compensation	$154,174
6	Group Health Insurance	$2,455,675
7	Group Life Insurance	$15,000
8	Physicals	$3,500
9	Print Town Reports	$12,000
	Mont Reg Planning Assess	$4,158
11	Historical Commission	$3,000
12	Band Concerts	$6,000
12A	Agricultural Commission	—
13	Reserve Fund	$75,000
13A	Salary Reserve Fund	$94,000
14	Unemployment Expense	$10,000
14A	Unemployment Expense-Stab Fund	—
15	Medicare - Town's Share	$320,560
	total	$3,378,711

The page prints $3,378,711 for this department. The lines above come to the same.

FY2024

line	label	voted
	Liability Insurance	$248,986
	Workers Compensation	$161,882
	Group Health Insurance	$2,957,470
	Group Life Insurance	$15,000
	Physicals	$3,500
	Print Town Reports	$12,000
10	Mont Red Planning	$4,262
	Assess	—
11	Historical Commission	$3,000
12	Band Concerts	$6,000
12A	Agricultural Commission	—
	Reserve Fund	$75,000
13A	Salary Reserve Fund	$130,000
14	Unemployment	$10,000
	Expense	—
	Funnelek Exe-Stal	—
15	Medicare Town's	$341,070
	Share	—
	total	$3,968,170

The page prints $3,968,170 for this department. The lines above come to the same.

FY2025

line	label	voted
4	Liability Insurance	$249,189
5	Workers Compensation	$169,976
	Group Health Insurance	$3,059,912
	Group Life Insurance	$15,000
	Physicals	$3,500
	Print Town Reports	$12,000
	Mont Reg Planning Assess	$4,369
11	Historical Commission	$3,000
	Band Concerts	$6,000
12A	Agricultural Commission	—
13	Reserve Fund	$200,000
13A	Salary Reserve Fund	$185,000
14	Unemployment Expense	$10,000
14A	Unemplex Expense-Stab Fund	—
15	Medicare - Town's Share	$375,177
	total	$4,293,123

The page prints $4,293,123 for this department. The lines above come to the same.

What moved

Lines that appear in FY2023 and FY2025 under the same printed label, biggest move first.

line	FY2023	FY2025	change
Group Health Insurance	$2,455,675	$3,059,912	+$604,237
Reserve Fund	$75,000	$200,000	+$125,000
Salary Reserve Fund	$94,000	$185,000	+$91,000
Medicare - Town's Share	$320,560	$375,177	+$54,617
Liability Insurance	$225,644	$249,189	+$23,545
Workers Compensation	$154,174	$169,976	+$15,803
Mont Reg Planning Assess	$4,158	$4,369	+$211
Group Life Insurance	$15,000	$15,000	+$0
Physicals	$3,500	$3,500	+$0
Print Town Reports	$12,000	$12,000	+$0
Historical Commission	$3,000	$3,000	+$0
Band Concerts	$6,000	$6,000	+$0

What this cannot show

What any department ASKED for. The omnibus is what Town Meeting voted, which is already balanced — the difference between a request and a vote is where a cut lives, and the annual report prints only the second.
What was actually spent. Voted and spent are different quantities and rule 1 forbids mixing them in one calculation.
Whether any department reduced SERVICE. A department can hold its dollars and cut its hours, and a dollar figure will not say so.
Why any line moved. The omnibus states an amount and gives no reason for it, so every explanation of a movement here would be a hypothesis.
Anything about FY2026 below the total. The FY2025 annual report prints no department figures at all.
That growing faster than the levy cap is a problem. Proposition 2½ limits the LEVY, not the budget: the budget is the levy plus state aid, local receipts and transfers, and new growth raises the levy limit on top of the 2.5%. The cap is used here as a common reference point every board in town already uses — it is not a ceiling anybody breached.

Where this came from

Nothing on this page is an official document. It was written here, from documents the town and district published and from records obtained by request, and it has not been reviewed or endorsed by the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee, the Finance Committee or Lunenburg Public Schools. The report index says the same thing at more length, and lists every analysis alongside the data underneath it.

This page renders the document itself, which is the source of truth: there is one copy of every sentence and every figure here, not a transcription of one.

Markdown970 words5 KBlast changed 2026-09-22sha256 3820615a79322457…

Every other report

The budget feed — every board, everything about money →What the town is deciding now →The blog — one finding at a time, in two minutes →This week in town — meetings coming up, minutes and recordings just posted →The boards — each one, in one place →Meeting minutes — written from the recordings →Lunenburg by the numbers — who lives here →Lunenburg’s homes and the tax bill →Homes and students — the town builds, the schools do not grow →The boards, compared →Youth sports and the fields →The School Committee’s finances — every fund and line it owns →Parks & Recreation — the department, its fund, its sales, its grounds →Health insurance →Free cash — can it fill the gap? →Teacher contracts →School user and athletic fees →Extracurriculars — sports, music and clubs →Classroom positions and class size →Overrides →Commercial development and new growth →Special education — four reports →How many students one special education group may have →The circuit breaker — what the state reimburses for the costliest placements →What other districts spend, for each pupil →What the state requires us to spend — and where that puts us →Chapter 70 — the formula, and why it pays the floor →How Chapter 70 actually works, in eight steps →School staffing — did it go up, and over which years →Who works in each school →The paraprofessionals →What courses actually ran, subject by subject →AP exams — who sits them, in what, and how they score →The cut register — what was announced, and what shows →Funding that stopped →When a grant ends — who picks up the bill →Who is in the schools — enrolment, FY1994 to today →Which grades students leave in →Who leaves Lunenburg schools, and where they go →Monty Tech — the assessment, and what sets it →If students leave — what school choice would cost →What a family actually pays →What sports cost, and who pays →Health insurance — the cost outside the school budget →Budget against reported spending →

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